The project of the Union State of Russia and Belarus too early to write off. The leaders of the two countries attach great importance to and are willing to make every effort to further integration. This is the main message of the last meeting in Minsk on the eve of the Supreme State Council (HCV) of the Union State.
Photo: TVNZ / Global Look
The main themes of the Minsk meeting were trade and economic cooperation, foreign policy issues and further development of the Union state. Before HCV presidents extended meeting Alexander Lukashenko and Vladimir Putin talked face to face. The protocol part of the event, they were scattered in praise each other and talked about how much and for both Moscow and Minsk is an interstate union.
“All that began 20 years ago, referring to the start of construction of the Union state, nothing is not lost, but rather the integration project is developed, is developing successfully “, – the Russian leader said. He added that the Russian-Belarusian cooperation “becomes a driver of development of integration processes on the post-Soviet space”.
His Belarusian counterpart noted that the global economic uncertainty, a crisis of confidence in international relations, the escalation of the armed conflict and the exacerbation of the information wars test the strength of alliance between Moscow and Minsk. But all these adversities “should not affect the balance of the priorities in the work of the Union State”.
Putin and Lukashenko said that on the eve of the two governments summit had a very large training and seriously worked topical issues of bilateral relations.
On both sides of the summit was attended by a very representative delegation. In Russia, in addition to the president, included Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Energy Minister Alexander Novak, Head of Industry and Trade Denis Manturov and other senior officials. Thus, the list of participants and the level of preparation of the event showed that, in the circumstances of the Russian-Belarusian cooperation is for both countries a key foreign policy direction.
One of the most important decisions taken by the advanced HCV composition became Union state budget for this year. Its size will amount to 6.6 billion Russian rubles. Basically, the money will go to finance the Union’s programs and activities in the key areas of bilateral cooperation. The budget revenues will be formed by contributions of each party. Their share remained at the level of previous years: Russia will provide about two-thirds of the necessary funds, Belarus – one-third. In addition, in this year’s budget will be transferred funds not used in the last year.
At the round table the parties have agreed to co-ordinate macroeconomic regulation to ensure stable growth of the economy of the Union State. All obstacles to the strengthening of horizontal trade and investment relations must be eliminated, the meeting participants noted. you need to use all platforms and formats for the development of integration. It is necessary to form a single industrial policy, trade back on the growth path and enhance import substitution.
In the energy sphere, the sides discussed the supply of oil and gas. In this matter we accumulated mutual claims. According to Novak, last year Belarus has not fulfilled its obligations to supply oil products to the Russian (Belarusian side explains it by the fact that Russia gives too low price). This makes it difficult to negotiate discounts for Minsk for Russian gas. Now for Belarus and acts as the lowest price, but Lukashenko asked to slow down a little. Consultations on this issue are ongoing and there is no doubt that the parties eventually reach an agreement, the head of the Russian Ministry of Energy.
Another hot issue was the military cooperation between the two countries (the theme of the possible establishment of a Russian air base on the territory of Belarus at the same time are not affected). “We paid attention to the international and regional security Moreover, we have developed a clear plan of action in our regional group of forces of Belarus and Russia they meet modern standards..”, – Lukashenka said after a meeting
Further cooperation with. Russia does not threaten the independence of Belarus lost. Summing up the meeting in Minsk, Vladimir Putin emphasized that the bilateral relations should be further developed on the principle of “mutually equitable integration”. In other words, the Union State should incorporate the positive features of such supranational entities and avoid the mistakes that allowed the members of the European Union and other organizations.
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